How to get a cheap cell phone

I recently acquired a few new cell phones, all of which are working great! My wife's Sony phone was stolen, so I was looking for replacements. Since our 2 year plan had over a year left on it, AT&T's only offering was.

I don't mind getting refurbished equipment. AT&T refurb seems to work as good as new. I found a flip phone that has similar features to my w580i, except its a flip phone. It was $99 plus tax. No thanks.

Next I looked at purchasing a Go Phone. Go Phones are AT&T's prepaid phones and if you pop your current SIM card into one, it works just like any other phone. So I could pop in my wife's existing card into the Go Phone. Unfortunately, this phone wasn't the one I wanted either.

So, I hit Ebay and won a bid on a used W580i. It was about $60.

How to save some money on your cell phone

After debating adding another line to my ATT Cell plan, I decided to investigate how I could do this for less money. I was reviewing my Family Talk plan, which had 550 minutes with rollover minutes. That was working for my wife and I, until my oldest son got his phone. We quickly added unlimited text after he texted about 600 texts on his 3rd month. (Yes, we punished him, yes, I made him pay for it.) All said and done, we were paying about $100 per month for 3 phones and unlimited text.

I signed up for a corporate discount (you may want to check if your company has an arrangement with any cell providers). That allowed me to save a few bucks each month. Next I started checking with other family members to see if any of my single relatives had plans. I found one who was paying $50 per month for himself (no texting included) on the cheapest plan from AT&T. We agreed to add him to my plan as a 4th line. This required I move up to the 700 minute plan (about $10 /month) and pay for the additional line ($10/month). So where is the savings? Between the two of us we were paying $150 per month. Combined, we now pay about $120 per month. Plus, he gets unlimited text too!

ATT Wireless